Kate found the door marked transportation supervisor and went in.
The man behind the desk waved her inside and went on talking on the phone. "Four sets of studded tires is the best I can do I'm afraid."
He listened. "Make it three cases of hard hats and you have a deal no three very well I'll send Dave over with the tires have the hats ready."
He laughed. "Yes I am and so are you I won't call the unit owners if you won't." He hung up and looked across at Kate. "I imagine you would be Katherine Shugak?" "Kate," she said. "You're English."
"British actually." He rose to his feet and offered her two fingers.
"Harris Perry Ms. Shugak I'm your new supervisor welcome to Prudhoe Bay."
Perry didn't look English or British or even European for that matter; he looked as if manana should be his middle name. His face was dark, his features swarthy and he bore a distinct resemblance to a Mexican ban dido Kate had seen once in a Clint Eastwood movie on Bobby's VCR, a resemblance enhanced by the full black mustache that curved in an upside-down U over his mouth. His teeth gleamed beneath it in a practiced smile. "Flight up satisfactory I hope?"
"Sure. Wasn't it supposed to be?"
He shrugged with a nonchalance Kate found peculiar in someone occupying the hot seat behind a door marked transportation. "You never can tell did you receive your room assignment?"
Mutely, she held up a key dangling from a green plastic tag.
"What's the number 786 let's see now OCX outside room good you'll get some sleep and Ralph is your alternate so you might even get some closet space." He chuckled. She didn't know what he was talking about and she was having a hard time keeping up with his rapid speech anyway so she remained silent. "You can pick up your baggage down by Security this evening and get someone to show you your room." He picked up the phone and punched in a number. "Toni I've got a live one for you new hire Katherine Shugak I'll bring her right up." He hung up. "Please follow me."
He came out from behind the desk, giving Kate time enough to notice that his jeans were ironed, a knife-edge crease running down the front of each leg. In keeping with what appeared to be the North Slope uniform he also wore a Pendleton shirt in a subdued red and black check. It fit so well she suspected he'd had it tailored. She followed him back out into the corridor and down more hallways, through a dimly lit garage filled with trucks covered with mud beneath which the yellow and green RPetco colors were barely visible, and suddenly found herself passing rapidly in front of the front desk with no very clear recollection of how she'd got there.
Perry skidded to a halt in front of an open door and Kate almost trod on his heels. "This is it let me know if you have any problems." He turned on his heel and marched off briskly.
Resisting an impulse to toss a salute at his retreating back, Kate poked a cautious nose in the open door. Cramped and windowless, the office was barely large enough to hold a desk, two chairs, a bookcase and a credenza. It was further cramped by the piggyback plant hanging like a parasol from one corner of the ceiling, the fig tree flourishing from another and the philodendron growing down the side of the bookcase on it way out the door. The bookcase was jammed with back issues of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly and Business Week and Forbes and plastic cups filled with water and green cuttings. Very little wall showed through the eight-by-ten black-and-white glossies of geese and polar bears and great snowy owls tacked floor to ceiling.
On one corner of the desktop sat two wire baskets. One was labeled way OUT. The other was labeled deeper IN.
Kate was staring at those signs with a growing sense of apprehension when the slender brunette from the bus, now seated behind the desk, became aware of Kate's presence. She bounced immediately to her feet and grabbed Kate's hand to sling her into a chair. The brunette beamed at her and said, "You must be new hire Katherine Shugak guess what!"
Kate paused halfway out of her new parka. "What? And it's Kate."
"I just bought a partnership in a pistachio farm!"
There followed a short silence. "You bought a what in a what?"
"Do you know what pistachios cost per pound think of the money I'm going to make and if we lose I can write it off you need an accountant you will don't worry I've got a great one you just say the word." The phone rang and the brunette grabbed it and spoke without pause. "What no I can't no not now I've got someone in my office call me tonight goodbye."
She hung up the phone and drew breath, only to be interrupted when a man built like a pit bull barged into the office, banging the door off the bookcase with a resounding crash that reverberated up through the soles of Kate's boots. The philodendron cowered. Short and squat with shoulders so muscular that his arms bowed out from his torso, he had iron-gray hair and a personality to match. "What the fuck are you doing about the seventeenth of April?"
Evidently everyone on the Slope spoke without punctuation. "Cale Yarborough Katherine Prudhoe Bay field manager just call him God," the brunette said. "This is Katherine Shugak roustabout new hire what about April I don't go on vacation until May."
"What's your vacation got to do with anything the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee and the Exxon president and CEO are coming up on the seventeenth both groups on the same day who did this Francine?"
The brunette stifled herself and gave a one-word answer. "Probably."
"Call that bitch and tell her to fix it I don't care how she does it just tell her to do it or I'll have her ass nice to meet you too Shugak." The door slammed behind him.
Kate waited until the footsteps in the hall died away before inquiring timidly, "Urn, exactly who are you?"
The brunette looked absolutely astounded. "Didn't I introduce myself oh for dumb oh my gawd Katherine I'm so sorry I'm Toni Hartzler public relations representative for RPetco North Slope assigned B Shift like you."
She had to pause for breath again and Kate seized the opportunity. "Why am I here? And it's Kate."
Toni had delicate features, pale, perfect skin, dreamy brown eyes and a raucous, braying laugh that would have sounded more likely coming from a donkey. Before she could speak the phone rang. "Hello yes no not now call me tonight we'll set something up then."
She hung up and the door banged open again and again bounced off the bookcase. This time it was a short blond man with sleeked-back hair, dressed in the same uniform as the security guard at the Base Camp's main entrance. "Where is he I know he's in here Hartzler your fucking alternate kidnapped him where is he?"
"Katherine Shugak meet Glen Lefevre our local Hitler and with littler charm I don't have the faintest idea of what in the world you're talking about Glen," Toni said mildly. "Bob's at lunch or on his way out to the airport I don't know which he had a tour this morning."
"Don't give me that shit!" the guard yelled, his red face going redder.
"I saw Kinderknecht spying last night when Deputy Dawg was doing his practice laps where is he?"
The grit and gravel female voice came over the loudspeaker.
"Attention, sports fans, attention. The Security Department has announced an all-points-bulletin for Deputy Dawg, kidnapped from Security this morning sometime between nine and ten A.M. Victim description as follows: height four inches, length six and a half inches, weight ten and a half ounces, complexion green with brown spots.
Has been known to bite. Anyone with any information leading to the rescue of Deputy Dawg and the apprehension of the turtle nappers dial
4911. There is a reward on offer of one Tundra Traveler's Certificate, guaranteed point-free with no supervisor advisory call. Glen Lefevre, call your office immediately."
The guard snatched up the phone and dialed an extension. "What WHAT I'll be right there!" He threw down the phone and shook a fist in Toni's face. "I know Kinderknecht had a hand in this Hartzler this ain't the end of this!"
The door slammed shut behind him, only to slam open again immediately.
The philodendron was having a bad day. "The Federal Energy Regulatory Committee says that eat
ing a lunch at RPetco's Base Camp free of charge constitutes taking a bribe," Cale Yarborough barked. "They insist on paying." "Paying who?" Toni asked with polite interest. "And how much?"
"Find out goddammit do I have to do every goddam thing around this goddam place myself?" The question was obviously rhetorical because he slammed out again without waiting for a reply.
Toni frowned, marring her perfect brow with a furrow of concentration.
After a moment it smoothed out again. She picked up the phone and dialed, and winked at Kate while waiting for an answer. "Francine?" she said, her voice smooth and syrupy and now entirely without haste.
"The Federal Energy Regulatory Committee says there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. They insist on paying for theirs when they come up."
Kate could clearly hear the exasperated voice coming over the receiver from where she sat. "Oh, for God's sake. How much is lunch on the Slope and how are they going to pay, cash or check? Do we ask for two pieces of identification? Do we accept out-of-state checks? And what the hell are we supposed to do with the money once we have it?" "Find out," Toni suggested sweetly. "Do I have to do every goddam thing around this goddam place myself?" She hung up with a flourish and grinned at Kate.
"Another challenge faced another crisis met another problem solved delegation is the life's blood of any young executive in the oil business, remember that {Catherine and you'll do fine."
Kate's ear must have finally caught up with Toni's voice because she thought she might actually have detected a comma in that last phrase.
The phone rang and Toni snatched it up. "Yes yes yes no not now have a little patience call me tonight."
Then again, maybe not.
Toni hung up and the door slammed open and a Fury erupted into the middle of the room. Nobody knocked in this place.
The Fury had a face like Early Simon and an accent like LBJ. She was dressed in a white, three-quarter-length jacket that made her look like she was about to produce a syringe and draw blood. "There it is!" she yelped, pointing at the Benjamin fig tree. "I knew that lying sack of shit took it!" She saw Kate, mouth open, and said furiously, "And just who the hell are you?"
Kate tried an ingratiating smile. "Um--Kate Shugak?" "Well?" the Fury demanded. "Is you or ain't you?"
Toni intervened. "Katherine Shugak, new hire roustabout, Ann Mccord head steward what's the problem Ann?"
The Fury rounded on her ferociously. "The problem is that goddam alternate of yours stole that fig tree for the second time this month!
I ain't got enough to do training Hump to eat Deputy Dawg's lunch without chasing after my damn plants?" She leveled a finger and commanded, "Y'all tell that prick if he steals one more plant outa the lounge he's dead meat! The same goes double for y'all!" She bent over the planter tub and, cursing loudly, shoved it out the door. She poked her head back in and said politely, "Nice to meet y'all, Katherine.
Welcome to the Prudhoe Hilton. Toni?"
"Yes, Ann?" Toni said meekly.
Ann looked from Toni to Kate and back again. "Never mind." Toni smiled.
"Call me later."
The door slammed shut and naturally banged open again immediately. By now both Kate and the philodendron were used to it and barely flinched.
The man caught the door on its backswing. He wore insulated bib overalls, heavy boots and carried a parka. He had a thin face with sharp features and intense dark eyes. Those eyes widened when they saw Kate, but before either of them could speak Toni had risen to her feet and come around her desk, hand outstretched. "Otto. How nice to see you again."
He took her hand automatically, shaking it with his eyes still fixed on Kate, his expression hard to read. It wasn't male speculation of female availability, nor, Kate decided, was it the instinctive withdrawal of one race from another, she'd seen that too many times not to spot it on sight.
"Otto Leckerd, meet Katherine Shugak. Katherine's our newest roustabout.
Katherine, this is Prudhoe Bay's resident archaeologist."
"It's Kate, actually, not Katherine," Kate said, patiently for her. So that was it. She hadn't seen that look since college and Anthropology
101, no wonder she hadn't recognized it for what it was.
"Shugak." He affirmed her judgment with his first words. "You're Aleut."
It wasn't a question, but she nodded. Before she could dodge back out of the way he raised a long-fingered hand tipped with grimy fingernails and turned her head to examine her profile. "Classic. With those cheekbones and that forehead you'd have to be from the Aleutians. With a name like Shugak, maybe Kodiak?"
Being viewed as a specimen by a potential collector was not a new experience and never a pleasant one. Kate removed her chin from Leckerd's grasp. "Actually, my family comes from the Kanuyaq River and Prince William Sound."
"World War II relocation," he said instantly, and it galled her no end that he was right. Still, she was interested. "What's an archaeologist doing in Prudhoe Bay?"
"The Eskimos used to have a summer hunting camp on Tode Point. It turns out it used to be a place the local tribes met for kivgiq, a--" "A dance celebration," Kate said, "yes, I know. Interesting. I'd like to see it while I'm up here, if I may?"
An odd expression Kate couldn't quite define flickered across Leckerd's face. He hesitated, exchanging a glance with Hartzler, who said smoothly, "Oh, I don't see why not, Otto, do you? It really is the most interesting place, I'm sure you'll enjoy it."
Beneath her dewy-eyed gaze and dimpled smile Otto Leckerd forgot Kate's existence. They shook hands but to Kate's inquisitive eyes the prolonged gesture seemed more of a caress than a greeting. When she saw Toni's thumb brush Otto's wrist, and saw Otto come to attention like a setter on point, all alert and aquiver, she was sure of it.
"Did your people make it up all right?" Toni asked him, turning the question from prosaic to intimate with the twist of a vowel.
He nodded dumbly without releasing her hand. To Kate's critical eye he looked perilously close to drooling.
With a husky little chuckle Toni disentangled herself. "Where are they, in the lounge?" She had to repeat the question. "Is your crew in the lounge, Otto?"
Otto shook himself like a setter coming out of the water. "Yeah, they're in the lounge."
Toni beamed at him. "How nice. Shall we pick them up and get some lunch?" She tucked a companionable hand into his arm and they strolled into the corridor, Kate a forgotten third bringing up the rear. "I have a tour this afternoon, would your people like to come along? I don't believe any of them have been to the Slope before, have they?"
The corridor opened onto the first floor of the main module for the Base Camp, and Kate was surprised at how open it was. To the right was a game room filled with pool tables and shuffleboard and lined with booths upholstered in red. There was a long, rectangular window on the back wall of the game room and through it Kate saw a large body of water. The pool, she guessed, the site of Chuck Cass's last lap.
To the left was a lounge dotted with low modular furniture, cubical tables and brass lamps. A large shelf lined with books stood in a far corner. Between the two rooms and directly in front of them was an atrium with, if Kate's eyes did not deceive her, real birch trees growing behind glass and extending up through a hole in the ceiling into the next floor. Behind that was an open double door, through which came a hum of voices and the clink of dishes and the enticing aroma of a deep-fat fryer.
Stabenow, Dana - Shugak 04 - A Cold Blooded Business Page 4
